One of the most frequent questions we get is, “When you destroy someone’s reputation online, should you make-up bad things about them?” Every negative marketer has a different take on that question. Here is ours: As strange as it might sound coming from a negative online marketer, our integrity is of paramount importance to us. In this business, especially when it gets dirty, we have nothing — nothing at all — other than our honor, our word. We will fight dirty, but we will do so with integrity. I mean, we try to treat everyone the way we want to be treated. And we wouldn’t want to hire someone who lies — ever. Therefore, we just don’t lie. Yes, there’s a fine line between “dirty” and “integrity”, finer than most people think — and that’s what we spend our time trying to balance. Therefore, our general principle is: We use the truth, only the truth, and nothing but the truth. But we don’t use the “entire” truth, and we emphasize certain parts of the truth and de-emphasize others. Let me explain. In everyday life, even when you speak honestly, you don’t always share every little detail. If your wife asks, “Do I look fat in this dress?” — even if she does, you probably avoid answering the question, “Hey, that hat looks fantastic!”. We employ similar techniques, but on a massive, broader scale. For example, we’ll go and find your enemies’ clients. We’ll interview them one after another. We’ll then take the unhappiest — and feature them online. This is completely true and legitimate, and no one can argue with it or doubt it. Which is what makes it so compelling! Republished by Blog Post...

Interesting news today: Wikipedia has named and shamed a Texas-based public relations company following an investigation into spin doctors and “sock puppets” falsely manipulating entries on the site. The free encyclopaedia, which contains more than 30 million volunteer-authored articles in nearly 290 languages, called in lawyers after discovering that 300 “sock puppet” accounts – created using false identities – could be traced to a single public relations firm. Matthew Roth, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, the charitable organisation which is responsible for the site, said that Texas company Wiki-PR had been served with a legal letter warning it to “cease and desist” from editing sites. The PR company was also accused of the practice of “meatpuppetry”, where a user with a false identity is invited into an online discussion simply to support the argument of the invitee. Lets analyze what’s happening here. * Some guys manipulated Wikipedia, to support a particular position * Wikipedia discovered them * Wikipedia got very angry at them Here’s my thought: EVERYONE manipulates wikipedia. ALWAYS. Story: somewhere around 2003, the entry for Mugabe (the dictator of Zimbabwe) in Wikipedia was weirdly positive. I added in some negative comments and they were promptly deleted by the editor. We argued a bit, then I gave up. (Today, luckily, the entry is much less biased in his favor.) Forget business, think politics: everyone has a bias. So the articles will be written in someone’s favor. So the problem isn’t what these guys did. It’s that [a] they were stupid, [b] they got caught and [c] they happened to choose an opinion/position that Wikipedia didn’t like. Of course, of course I don’t advocate creating hundreds of fake accounts. But I would say that’s really just them being stupid. For example, if I hire a 100 people in India, for a few cents each, to create accounts in their own names for themselves — then it’s still real people, creating real accounts, making edits I suggest — that’s fully within all regulations. Right? So the real lesson here is: don’t be stupid. Republished by Blog Post...

Long-time reader SuzyQT writes in: Hey guys! What happens if one of my competitors starts creating/buying spammy links that point to our domain? Don’t the recent Panda and Penguin updates penalize my site in the Google rankings if they detect “unnatural” links? Regards, SuzyQT Great question, Suzy! Google’s stance (many moons ago) was the following: There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you’re concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don’t control the content of these pages. Hat tip However, Google has recently put out a video done by our good buddy Matt Cutts, along with the following change in their original statement: Google works hard to prevent other webmasters from being able to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you’re concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don’t control the content of these pages. This leads us to believe that yes, competitors buying and creating unnatural spammy links can now hurt your site. Your only defense agains this seems to tattling to Google and writing a “spam report”. But, most people create spammy links through 3rd party services, outsourcing in India, and other untraceable methods. This means that it’s almost impossible for it to be traced back directly to your competitor, which means no punishment. Bummer, eh? Republished by Blog Post...

One question that we often get is, “Is it possible to be too negative when we do negative SEO and negative online marketing?” Our response is: no, it’s not possible to be too negative–so long as you maintain your standards of integrity and honesty. Let me explain! You need to hit them where it hurts. Get low, low — we’re a fan of hitting them where it hurts. You need to. But the challenge is, fighting hard, while still maintaining your own integrity. This is hard because you’ll feel pressure every second, every millisecond, to violate all the rules of integrity to get them. You shouldn’t do this, for a few reasons. First, it’s immoral — and we need to be good people ourselves, so we don’t turn out like them. Second, if you’re immoral — then why should your clients trust you? If you lie to someone else, maybe you would lie to them, too? And, in any relationship-based business, from a job to a girlfriend, trust is paramount and must never be violated. Third, if you lie about your client, then your claims won’t hold up to scrutiny. For example, if you complain to Yelp about illegal activity he does to get him ejected from the list–well, if he is acting illegally, then, there’s a high chance you’ll succeed in getting him removed! But if you just invented that yourself, then, he will complain, and your claim will fail under scrutiny — and it will all be for nought! Immoral behavior, in other words, isn’t just inherently bad on its own; but it also has degrading effects on your own psychology, on your relationships with other people, and makes the quality of your work lower (since the client can fight back much more easily against lies than the truth). Is it really worth it? This marketer says a resounding, NO, it’s not, not at all!! Therefore, today’s lesson: Don’t lie; exaggerate. Republished by Blog Post...

There’s a great article making its round in the media today: KlearGear.com: Woman Hit With $3,500 Fine And Bad Credit Score After Writing Negative Review Of Online Retailer Here’s the story in short. A company gave shitty service. The client wrote a negative review on — a classic! — RipOffReports. The company then invented a fine for them (per small writing in a the terms & conditions the client never read), which went right to a debt collection agency — and BAM, their credit score is dinged. Lots going on here. Where to start? First: The companies will be ugly with you. Lets just admit it right up front. So you need to be prepared. Read the small print. Second: a great defense? Get everything in writing. Everything. Documentation is next to Godliness. Third: you (companies!) can do the same — albeit more honestly, fairly and nicely. This company gave crappy customer service — and you shouldn’t. Obviously give good service! But you can also put in little terms that they won’t read, that you can use to your advantage if they turn out to be obnoxious. (This isn’t a defense of KlearGear — they clearly didn’t deliver and did a bad job!) Fourth: great idea to just send a bill right to a debt collection agency. BAM. They’re the experts on dinging people who try to ding you. Noted. Adding it to my repertoire right now :) Republished by Blog Post...

Not all Keywords are created equal; some are harder to rank for than others. Here’s one method we use that we’ve found very effective: start with the easiest keywords of your opponent’s to rank for, then work your way up. A bazillion people are trying to rank first for “viagra.” So don’t even go there on day #1. What are the keywords that both have enough traffic and that you can get to the top for? Start there, and work your way down. But even if those keywords do NOT get much traffic — you might want to start there anyway! Think a bit Machiavellian. What will his customers be searching for? His potential customers? Maybe reviews. Maybe testimonials. Maybe more information. Or maybe particular clients in particular, like well-known clients. Or maybe a particular use of their product or service. In which case (or type of client) is their product the very weakest? Remember the old saying: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. What is its weakest link? Have you ever heard another old business saying that, every single company is a disaster on the inside? Well, it’s true. Every company is. What is the source of your opponent’s disasters? His employees? His clients? Does he treat people badly? Maybe he treats people too good, so they get lazy and don’t to the hard work needed? The way to approach this is, pretend you’re an investigative journalist. What would the Washington Post exposé be about? Every company has something dirty under the carpet. Who is their deep throat? Extra bonus, double-pro tip: don’t forget to hide your IP address and all other evidence of what you do and where you go :) It’s much, much easier to find than you think. Let the destruction of Anthony Wiener’s campaign — and possibly even DSK’s campaign for President of France — be a lesson to all: you just need one person who knows one bad thing you’ve done, and one person to incite them to go to the right people in the media…. and they’re toast. Republished by Blog Post...